The Quick and Easy Guide to Making the Perfect Omelette

perfect omelette recipe

People often cringe when they think about making an omelette for breakfast, probably followed by flashbacks of Gordon Ramsey shouting “Its raw, you donkey”. It takes too much time, effort and the end result is a goey mess.

A good omelette is supposed to be crisp with a beautiful crust and firm yet fluffy consistency. You probably think you need 4 years of culinary school to achieve something like that, but you’d be wrong.

A Good Pan

Is the first thing you need, and no, the Teflon ones you have from target won’t do. Why? Because they can’t get hot enough without smoking and most of them don’t distribute heat evenly, and most important for our purposes, they can’t go into the oven.

Remember that crispy crust I was talking about? We’re going to get that by broiling the omelette in the oven. This has a similar effect to baking a pizza in a wood-fired oven.

Any oven safe pan will do, but we recommend this 12” carbon steele. It’s not as cheap as a nonstick pan, but the payoff is in the taste of what you will make with this pan. Everything you make in this will taste so much better because you can cook at much higher heat. This is one of the great secrets to making tasty dishes.

Nutrition Facts

This is meant to be 2 or 3 servings, so the actual calorie per serving is closer to 300 calories. Its a bit heavier on the fat side but it balances out when you have it with a side of toast or fruit. It’s also extremely filling.

The Ingredients

An omelette is really versatile, so feel free to experiment and try all kinds of different ingredients and toppings. Start with this recipe and branch out later.

Base

Eggs. I use 4 eggs to make a big omelette and split up the left overs.

Milk or Heavy Cream. A dash of it to mix the eggs into.

Butter. To lightly paint the pan.

This is all you need to make an omelette, but it’d be pretty bland if you stopped here!

Toppings/Extra

Cheese. Pretty much any cheese on earth works, but my preference here is for Gouda or Sharp Cheddar.

Meat. I like to beef up the protein so I add lean deli-meat like roast beef or turkey breast.

Vegetables. The sky is the limit, my go-to ones are:

Mushrooms

Onions

Peppers

Seasonings and Spices

Salt

Fresh ground black pepper

Red pepper

Preparing the vegetables

There are two ways of cooking the vegetables, either in the pan or in the oven. I prefer doing them in the oven since you can cut down on clean-up by simply broiling them on a foil-covered baking sheet.

Chop up the vegetables finely

Lay them flat on top of a foil-covered baking sheet

Add seasonings (salt, pepper, red pepper) and ~1 tbsp olive oil

Mix everything together

Place on top oven rack and set your oven to Broil - High

They’ll take anwhere from ~5-10 minutes to cook, so in the meantime we’ll start preparing the eggs.

For the eggs

Break them into a small bowl. Add a dash of milk or cream to the eggs and use a fork or whisk to mix them together. They don’t have to be perfectly mixed, just as long as there aren’t solid egg yolks left.

Get all the toppings together and set-up at stoveside (eggs cook quickly, you really don't have time once they're in the pan). Once that’s done, turn on the pan to medium, and use the stick of butter like a marker to lightly coat its surface. When you see the butter is just barely sizzling, pour in the eggs. Immediately afterward start adding your toppings.

Layering the omellette

Turkey goes first right on top of the eggs.

Add seasonings

Followed by the cooked vegetables.

Finally add the cheese. Using large, small slices, or shredded is up to you.

Keep a close eye on the omellette as you’re adding the toppings. Once you see the edges start to barely solidify, turn the heat off if you need more time to add toppings. Otherwise it’ll get overcooked in the oven.

Into the fire

Wait until the edges of the omellette are cooked before putting it in the broiler on high. If you put it in too early the bottom/center will end up undercooked. Set the pan on the top rack close to the flames. Watch it closely as it develops that golden crust, be sure to turn the pan and re-position it to get an even crust.

The whole process takes anywhere from 20 to 60 seconds and its a fine line between perfectly cooked and burnt. Just follow your instincts and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Bon appétit

If you did everything right, you’ll end up with an amazing omellette and people will start getting jealous of your awesome cooking abilities.